Opera Software launched its Opera 10 browser Wednesday and the beta offering's advanced features were marked in particular by its speed, which the Norwegian company said is 40% faster that its Opera 9.6 version.

The browser, which can be downloaded from Opera's Web site, utilizes advanced compression techniques that promise to deliver more robust performance for slower Web connections like dial-up and Wi-Fi.

"We optimized the new Opera Presto 2.2 engine in Opera 10 to be much faster on resource-intensive pages such as Gmail and Facebook," the company said in announcing the browser.

The new browser's unique Speed Dial feature supports up to 25 favorite Web sites, and users opening a tab can pick their favorites. The tabs themselves can be resized, becoming miniature thumbnail screenshots by simply dragging a bar in a down manner.

"Your Web browser is the most important piece of software you will ever use," Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, Opera's chief executive, said in a statement. "We think Opera will redefine how you can enjoy the Web."

Other features included in Opera 10 are a BitTorrent application and an inline spell checker, as well as a new version of Opera Mail. The most impressive feature trumpeted by the company is its speed, though. While benchmark tests aren't available, its speed will likely draw comparisons with Google's new Chrome browser, already hailed for its speed.

Even with its impressive features, Opera's browser has just a 4% share of the browser market, far behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which has a 60% market share, according to recent independent market research figures. Mozilla Firefox has captured 30% of the market, and Google and Apple trail Opera slightly in browser market share.